Distribution of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine has "already begun," Army Gen. Gustave Perna, the logistics chief of the United States' vaccination effort, said Saturday.
The vaccine, which the Food and Drug Administration authorized for emergency use Friday night, isn't quite out on the road yet, but the overall process is off and running, and doses have been moved from manufacturing sites to the central distributor, McKesson, Perna said. Boxes are being packed and loaded at McKesson centers, he added, and will go out on UPS and FedEx trucks Sunday morning.
"We have absolute confidence" McKesson and the two delivery companies "will deliver vaccines to the American people in a safe and timely manner," Perna said. Over the next week, 5.9 million doses of the Moderna vaccine will be shipped out, he said, along with another 2 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has already been rolled out.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
While Perna was optimistic about the next stage, he also took responsibility for shortcomings involving the Pfizer-BioNTech rollout. Several states said the federal government has cut their anticipated vaccine allotments for next week by about 40 percent without explanation. Perna gave them one when he briefed the press Saturday, apologizing to the affected governors and stating that "nobody else failed" but him. He clarified there is no problem with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or the distribution process, chalking it up instead to a planning error that overestimated the amount of vaccine available.
-
August 23 editorial cartoonsCartoons Saturday's political cartoons include deficit dimness, steamroller-in-chief, and more
-
5 museum-grade cartoons about Trump's Smithsonian purgeCartoons Artists take on institutional rebranding, exhibit interpretation, and more
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreakSpeed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agencySpeed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Measles cases surge to 33-year highSpeed Read The infection was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 but has seen a resurgence amid vaccine hesitancy
-
Kennedy's vaccine panel signals skepticism, changeSpeed Read RFK Jr.'s new vaccine advisory board intends to make changes to the decades-old US immunization system
-
Kennedy ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory panelspeed read Health Secretary RFK Jr. is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has criticized the panel of experts
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kidsSpeed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
-
New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sickspeed read The FDA set stricter approval standards for booster shots
-
US overdose deaths plunged 27% last yearspeed read Drug overdose still 'remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44,' said the CDC
